Book picks similar to
The Holly & The Thistle by Regan Walker


historical-romance
christmas
short-story
romance

The Christmas Wager


Delilah Marvelle - 2015
    Miss Barrington knows her chances with the duke are incredibly good given what her close gypsy friend had once foretold, but a forgotten wager with her greatest nemesis, American millionaire, Mr. Redstone, is about to bring on complications and...chaos.Will she claim the dashing and respectable duke once foretold by the stars? Or will she fall for Mr. Redstone and go against destiny? Only the days leading up to Christmas will tell!

Christmas Roses


Amanda Cabot - 2012
    She certainly doesn't have a husband on her Christmas wish list. But when a wandering carpenter finds lodging at her boarding house, she admits that she might remarry if she found the right man--the kind of man who would bring her roses for Christmas. It would take a miracle to get roses during a harsh Wyoming winter. But Christmas, after all, is the time for miracles . . .Amanda Cabot invites readers to cozy up with a romantic, heartwarming tale of the greatest gift of all--love.

Lost in a Royal Kiss


Vanessa Kelly - 2013
    Clare must look after her siblings and run the household. Now she must add to her worries the fate of Dominic, a poor orphan who has inspired the wrath of the king himself. Clearly Linnet has no time to consider her own desires—much less notice the attentions of a certain handsome, powerful magistrate…Sir Anthony Tait is at a loss for how to capture Linnet’s interest. If only she would be still long enough for courting. Outright seduction seems the only answer. But will his kisses be enough to persuade her—or might Anthony have something to learn from young Dominic about matters of the heart? And in saving the boy’s future, might Anthony and Linnet at last create their own?

Lady, It's Cold Outside


Deb Marlowe - 2016
    She’s lost her grandfather and the bookshop they ran together. If not for the invitation from the Duke of Danby, she would have no place to go.No Christmas festivities for Baron Ellesworth this year. His newly inherited estate is in bad shape—and so is his bank account. He’ll spend the holiday traveling to do a bit of business with Lord Danby, in hopes of bringing Christmas to Elleshaven next year.Traveling during the holiday season doesn’t sound romantic, but a star in the East, an abandoned child and a quest for holiday cheer might just convince these two that love is the best gift of the Season.

For Love of the Duke


Christi Caldwell - 2014
    When he’s coaxed out of his self-imposed exile to attend the amusements of the Frost Fair, his life is irrevocably changed by his fateful meeting with Lady Katherine Adamson.With her tight brown ringlets and silly white-ruffled gowns, Lady Katherine Adamson has found her dance card empty for two Seasons. After her father’s passing, Katherine learned the unreliability of men, and is determined to depend on no one, except herself. Until she meets Jasper…In a desperate bid to avoid a match arranged by her family, Katherine makes the Duke of Bainbridge a shocking proposition—one that he accepts.Only, as Katherine begins to love Jasper, she finds the arrangement agreed upon is not enough. And Jasper is left to decide if protecting his heart is more important than fighting for Katherine’s love.

The Christmas Heirloom: Four Holiday Novellas of Love Through the Generations


Karen Witemeyer - 2018
    In stories ranging from 1820s Regency England to present-day Washington state, readers will be treated to Christmas tales of an heirloom brooch passed from mother to daughter for almost two hundred years. Will the family legend claiming the brooch brings love to its recipient hold true for these women separated by the years but bonded together by the ties of family?In Kristi Ann Hunter's "Legacy of Love," Sarah Gooding never suspected returning a brooch to an elderly woman would lead to a job . . . and introduce her to the woman's grandson. While he may be far above her station, she can't help but notice that his desire to make this Christmas special for his grandmother matches her own.In Karen Witemeyer's "Gift of the Heart," widow Ruth Albright uses the family brooch as collateral for a loan from the local banker. But the more she comes to know the man behind the stern businessman, the more she hopes for a second chance at love as the holidays draw near.In Sarah Loudin Thomas's "A Shot at Love," Fleeta Brady's rough-and-tumble childhood means she prefers hunting to more feminine activities. She never expected her mother's brooch might be how a fellow hunter turns her attention from competition to romance one December.In Becky Wade's "Because of You," Maddie Winslow has spent years in love with a man whose heart was already spoken for. When a church Christmas project brings them together and she stumbles upon an old family brooch, might it finally be her turn for love?

A Darcy Christmas


Sharon Lathan - 2010
    and Mrs. Darcy Wish You a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!"Share in the magic of the season in these three warm and wonderful holiday novellas from bestselling authors.Christmas Present by Amanda GrangeA Darcy Christmas by Sharon LathanMr. Darcy's Christmas Carol by Carolyn EberhartFrom two bestselling and a debut author comes heartwarming Christmas tales sure to delight Jane Austen fans.From Amanda Grange, the bestselling author of Mr. Darcy's Diary and Mr. Darcy, Vampyre, Christmas finds the Darcy's celebrating the holiday with preparations for a ball, but the festivities are interrupted by the arrival of a very special gift... Ever sensual and romantic, Sharon Lathan highlights everything that's best and most precious in the celebrations of the holiday season. After a quarter of a century together, Darcy and Elizabeth reminisce... Jane Austen meets Charles Dickens! Carol Eberhart's Mr. Darcy's Christmas Carol finds Darcy encountering ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future, who show him his life if pride keeps him from his one true love.

A Debt Paid in Marriage


Georgie Lee - 2015
    A marriage of convenience may be Laura's chance to reclaim her future, but she won't settle for anything less than true passion. Can she hope to find it in Philip's arms?

Christmas Chaos


Jennifer Conner - 2011
    All she want to do is get to her families Christmas Eve dinner for once on time. Instead, she gets stuck in her office's elevator with a tall, stranger in the dark.When she meets Carsten ,will Josiane find that holiday romance may come in the strangest places?

The Duke's Undoing


G.G. Vandagriff - 2012
    He is weary, cynical, and very bored. Known as the worst rake in England, he finds he has no interest in upholding that distinction, when his friend, the Marquis of Somerset, proposes a bet: "Five thousand guineas says that seducing Miss Elise Edwards will cure your ennui." Because his friend has just lost a packet to him, he agrees that the bet be posted in White's famous Betting Book.The following day, while walking in Green Park, he spies a mysterious young woman, veiled, and obviously grieving. A disembodied voice, sounding strangely like that of his late adjutant, informs him, "The jig is up. That is the girl you are going to marry!" He scoffs, but is nevertheless intrigued by something about the slight figure. He even sketches her and asks if he can be of assistance to her. She declines his offer kindly.At the opera that evening, he is captivated by a beauty across the Opera Hall. He hears the same voice, saying the same thing. The marquis informs him that the woman in question is Miss Elise Edwards. When he meets her, he recognizes her voice as that of the woman in the park. Now she is surrounded by a surfeit of ex-fiance's, one of them dangerously unbalanced. Ruisdell discovers an actual bond between them which renders him honor bound to protect her.Thus begins a train of unstoppable events--dangerous, humorous, devilish, and amorous--that carry his life along at such a pace that the duke soon knows not whether he is on his head or his heels. And then there is that bet . . .

The Harlow Hoyden


Lynn Messina - 2014
    It is Emma who is amazed. She has naturally concluded that the man reading in the conservatory must be the country cousin (who else in London would actually read?) and is quite vexed to discover that he is the Duke of Trent himself—imagine, stealing the duke’s prize Rhyncholaelia digbyana under his very nose! But her vexation doesn’t last long. For Emma is a practical young lady with a mission: to end her dear sister Lavinia’s engagement to the villainous (and dreadfully dull!) Sir Waldo Windbourne, and she thinks that the famous libertine is just the man for the job. If he would only seduce her sister away from Sir Waldo…. Well, not seduce exactly, but flirt mercilessly and engage her interest. Perhaps then Lavinia would jilt the baron. The Duke of Trent is resistant, of course. Despite his reputation, he does not toy with the affections of innocents. And besides, it’s not her sister he longs to seduce.

A Diamond in the Rough


Andrea Pickens - 2001
    Spurning the gaming halls and brothels, he secretly designs the most beautiful gardens in England. Then his ne'er-do-well father bets the ancestral manor on the outcome of a golf match, and it's up to Adrian to save his beloved home. But first he must travel to Scotland to learn the game. Miss Derrien Edwards is not a typical Scottish lass. Her bouncy blond curls tucked under a woolen cap, she satisfies her love of the links by passing as a young male caddie named "Derry". When Adrian arrives at St. Andrews links, he's paired with "Derry". While learning to play, Adrian struggles to ignore his strange attraction to the impudent caddie, and Derrien finds herself caught in her own trap. Secrets swirl as the day of reckoning arrives—and neither can afford to lose the game.

Everlasting Light


Andrea Boeshaar - 2013
    Did he die in a Yankee prison? Was he buried in a shallow grave on a Virginia battlefield? Or has he turned his back on the specter of death and loss and sought solitude west of the Mississippi River, never to return home again? As Christmas nears, Alaina deflects the advances of a suitor in the neighboring county, choosing to cling instead to hope and her belief that Braeden will return. As winter’s chill settles upon her farm, Alaina cries out to God in one final Christmas Prayer. When loss lingers, love, for it is through heartbreak that God opens doorways to comfort others.

When a Lord Loves a Lady: The Honorable Rogues Collection, 1-5


Collette Cameron - 2019
    Familiar tropes fill the pages of these historical page-turners, including second chances, friends to lovers, tortured military heroes, ugly ducklings, and unrequited love. Misunderstandings, self-doubts, secrets, shadowed pasts, and antagonists you'll long to clobber, have the flawed, but charming characters, trotting headlong into romantic mayhem. Will the heroes' and heroines' fledgling love survive the tumult? Oh, such chaos and conflict reign for these lords and ladies, which means scrumptious, satisfying historical romance stories you must read in one sitting! Caution: This five-book set contains unconventional, frequently head-strong Regency misses, lords you'll want to hug and smack upside their handsome heads, a cast of secondary characters from utterly charming to dastardly, and more than one spoiled feline with superior airs. Buy this charming Regency Romances collection of heartwarming happily ever afters for delightful, romantic escapes into Regency England's historical past. A Kiss for a Rogue: Can a beautiful spinster trust love again? Especially if the same man asks? A sweet story of love relinquished and redeemed as once betrothed Allen Wimpleton and Olivia Kingsley meet again after a three year separation only to discover their love is stronger than ever. A Bride for a Rogue: When is love not enough? A clumsy noblewoman resigned to spinsterhood determines to win the heart of the man she's loved since girlhood-a penniless soldier who returns from India, a disfigured and disillusioned. A Rogue's Scandalous Wish: A marriage offer obligated by duty; an acceptance compelled by desperation. A stolen moonlight kiss, the threat of a duel, and the subsequent scandal result in a compulsory marriage offer and an equally unenthusiastic acceptance. To Capture a Rogue's Heart: Could you give up what you're most passionate about forever? When a privateer-turned-duke enlists help finding a bride from a woman intended for another, neither is prepared for the resulting havoc. The Rogue and the Wallflower: He loved her beyond anything and everything-precisely why he couldn't ever marry her. Since an explosion ravaged Captain Morgan Le Draco's face, he's fortified himself behind an impenetrable rampart of cynicism and distrust. Scorned and ridiculed most of her adult life, Shona, Lady Atterberry is reconciled to spinsterhood, until Morgan saves her life, and neither can deny the immediate, powerful, and sensual attraction that sparks between them.

Snowy Night with a Stranger


Jane Feather - 2008
    Julia London's Snowy Night with a Highlander sends a debutante into the wintry Scottish wilds....Searching for her rakehell brother, an earl lying low in the wake of a scandalous affair, Fiona Haines is led by a rugged Highlander who obscures his scarred face. As they journey on, Fiona draws closer to her brave, enigmatic protector -- but will fury or passion ignite when he reveals his identity?